Nearly unbreakable, punishing, and capable of busting a man’s head wide open. Always there to help the ladies, devastating in a brawl, and causing grown men to tremble. Of course, I’m talking about a tire iron. Yes, the very same tire iron the average American keeps in the trunk of their car in case of a flat tire.

Now ask the tire iron to express the following emotions: anger, happiness, fear, and surprise. Odds are that the tire iron is capable of expressing one or more of these emotions more convincingly than Jason Statham.

How much you enjoy The Mechanic, a remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film having the same name, all depends on how much you like Jason Statham. I must admit, I can’t stand him. I am sick of Statham’s one-trick pony show and never really cared for his, “Hey! Look at me! I’m exactly the same character that I am in all my other films! I’ll blandly read my lines and then take off my shirt so that you can look at my abs” approach to his roles.

Jason Statham annoys me. He’s one of the few people whose English accent actually makes me angry. Often called “Europe’s Keanu Reeves,” Statham has quickly risen to an action movie icon with films grossing over one billion dollars worldwide.

I must admit that I liked him in his first two roles, in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, but have pretty much hated him in everything he has done since.

So it was with great trepidation that I sat down to watch the 2011 remake of The Mechanic. I was shocked! After watching Statham’s performance, all my dislike and mild criticism melted away to be replaced with a greater dislike and more severe criticism.

Statham is back in yet another movie where he plays a virtually indestructible, unstoppable killing machine. Think James Bond, but completely devoid of any personality.

The Mechanic is the type of movie that you see all too much of these days. It’s not too bad and not too good. It’s full of bone-crunching action and CGI explosions. It’s a definite “hold off to watch on cable/Netflix” film.

The plot is pretty much the same as the original. Statham plays hit man extraordinaire Arthur Bishop, who excels at making murder look like an accident. In the opening scene he kills a heavily guarded drug lord who’s swimming laps in his pool, and escapes undetected.

How? Luckily, the drug lord enjoys swimming in black ink or perhaps coffee. The water is as dark as night, which affords Bishop the opportunity to hide down below. It makes you wonder why the guards are worried about assassins and not as worried that the person they are protecting is swimming in this horrible murky, black water that even BP officials would deem unfit.

After killing the drug lord and escaping, Bishop meets his mentor Harry (the always excellent Donald Sutherland) to get paid. He next goes to his beautiful home, which appears to be in the middle of a swamp. Sometimes he needs to take a boat to get there; other times he simply drives.

Bishop learns that Harry has been betraying the syndicate and when a hit is put out on Harry, Bishop reluctantly carries it out. Perhaps feeling guilty afterward, Arthur befriends Harry’s screw-up, loose cannon son and begins to train him to be a hit man.

Without giving more away, it turns out that Arthur’s new bosses may have not been telling the truth about Harry.

Unfortunately, much like the original film, the remake has an interesting premise that sounds more promising then what’s delivered on screen. It is also a film that makes you angry at all the missed opportunities. You might have read about the chemistry between Statham and younger actor Ben Foster. There really is no chemistry; it’s basically all Ben Foster and his acting skills.

Foster acts circles around Statham and proves to be a more believable and likable action star than he could ever be. If Statham was an actor more comfortable with taking chances, then perhaps we would have seen the lonely, desperate for human companionship character that Charles Bronson portrayed in the original and understood why such a cunning expert would pair up with a out of control young upstart.

The Mechanic is simply an OK film. If you loved Statham in The Transporter, Death Race 2000, or Crank, then you’ll love him in The Mechanic because, basically, he’s same exact character.